Peace activist arrested for trespass while waiting to speak to Michelle Obama

Tuesday

Jul 31, 2007 at 12:01 AMJul 31, 2007 at 2:17 PM

A peace activist seeking to talk with Michelle Obama, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, was arrested Monday afternoon when she refused to leave the Peoria Civic Center.

Frank Radosevich

A peace activist seeking to talk with Michelle Obama, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, was arrested Monday afternoon when she refused to leave the Peoria Civic Center.

Razia Ahmed, 64, of 2015 W. Cimarron Drive was led away in handcuffs from the downtown convention center about 12:45 p.m. when Peoria police arrested her on a charge of criminal trespass.

"I just decided this was my chance to ask Obama’s wife what her husband was going to do," Ahmed said in a telephone interview from her home later Monday. "It wasn’t already planned."

Ahmed, a native of Pakistan, was protesting the treatment of prisoners at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba at the U.S. District Courthouse earlier Monday.

Donning orange jumpsuits and black sacks over their heads, like those worn by detainees at the naval station, Ahmed and about 10 members of the Peoria Area Peace Network decided to move their demonstration to the Civic Center, about a block away, where a crowd had gathered to hear Michelle Obama’s fund-raising speech.

When they entered the lobby, a Civic Center employee told them to leave, said Jack Ryan, the group’s leader. Ahmed, wanting to talk with or simply pass along a message to Michelle Obama, knelt down and decided to stay put.

"She said ‘I’m not leaving, I would like to see Mrs. Obama,’" Ryan recalled Monday night.

Security officials eventually called police to have Ahmed removed after they repeatedly told her to exit the lobby, police reports stated. Though the Civic Center is a public building that receives tax dollars, it is operated by a contractor, making it private property.

A message seeking comment left at the home of Debbie Ritschel, general manager of the Civic Center, was not returned Monday evening.

Ahmed was later told that Michelle Obama would not meet with her, though she was invited to send her a letter detailing her questions.

"By then I was already in handcuffs ready to be taken to the police car," she said.

Friends of Ahmed posted her $118 bail and she was released from jail about four hours later. She is scheduled to appear again in Peoria County Court Aug. 28.

Frank Radosevich II can be reached at (309) 686-3142 or fradosevich@pjstar.com.